A first for a candidate? — ‘Send me no money’

Republican Joel VanLandingham is the newest candidate in the June 3 primary for the South Bay’s 17th Congressional District, which features a heated battle between two Democrats, incumbent Mike Honda and Silicon Valley-backed Ro Khanna. Now VanLandingham, a newcomer to big-league politics, has another distinction — his message to would-be campaign contributors.

“When people ask me where they can send me money to back me, I tell them, if you have any extra money to spend … donate it to a charity,” VanLandingham said by e-mail Monday. “I don’t want your money, I want you to look at the candidates and ask yourself, ‘Who is really best to represent me and my family?’ ”

That’s not exactly a commonplace view among candidates, including those in the 17th District. Khanna, a former Obama administration trade representative, reported nearly $2 million cash on hand at the end of 2013, with Honda coming in at a lesser but still-healthy $622,000.

Republican Vanila Singh, a Stanford physician, entered the race in late December and reported raising $100,000 in her first five days as a candidate.

VanLandingham, a tech recruiter, made news last Friday when a judge kept him on the ballot while disqualifying another recent Republican entrant, attorney Vinesh Rathore, for failing to submit enough valid signatures on petitions. The ruling was in response to a lawsuit by a Republican official accusing Khanna of recruiting both Rathore and VanLandingham as last-minute candidates in an attempt to split the Republican vote and smooth his own path into the November runoff against Honda, under California’s “top two” primary system.

Jeffrey Wald, the Alameda County Republican Central Committee member who filed the suit, said he had evidence that one man who circulated petitions for VanLandingham had earlier signed Khanna’s nominating papers. If so, said the Sacramento judge who ruled on the case, there’s no law against it.

Khanna called the accusation of candidate-recruiting preposterous. VanLandingham said Monday he’s never spoken to either Khanna or Honda and had entered the race after “a lot of people” asked him to run.

“It’s ridiculous to pair me up with any Democrat candidate,” VanLandingham said, using a common Republican term of belittlement for Democratic politicians. “Ro is just another Mike Honda — a professional politician who is only accountable to his party.”